Century Plant Family
Agavaceae (ah-gav-AY-see-ee)
Iconic Features
- Leaves large and generally in rosettes
- Flowers with 6 similar tepals
- All species contain saponins
Description (Jepson)
- Monocotyledons (monocots) – monocots are a major lineage of flowering, mostly herbaceous plants, generally characterized by
- Single seed leaf (cotyledon)
- Linear or oblong leaves with parallel venation
- Flower parts in threes
- Pollen grains with a single pore
- Vascular bundles scattered in stem
- Fibrous root system
- Perennial herbs, shrubs, and trees
- Geophytes (plants with underground storage organs)
- Grow from bulbs (short underground stems with fleshy leaves, e.g. onions) or rhizomes (horizontal underground stems)
- Leaves
- Usually develop as rosettes at the top of a woody stem
- Simple (not divided into leaflets)
- Generally long and narrow
- Generally tough and fibrous; sometimes succulent
- Often with a spine at the tip and sometimes along the margins
- Flowers
- Inflorescence (flower arrangement) a very long panicle (branching stem with flowers opening from the bottom up)
- Bisexual flowers with 3 petals and 3 sepals (outer flower parts), in 2 separate whorls, similar in appearance and collectively called tepals
- Ovary superior (above the attachment of other flower parts) or inferior (below the attachment of other flower parts)
- Fruit is a capsule (a dry, multi-chambered fruit that splits open at maturity)
Notes
- Approximately 637 species worldwide
- Found especially in dry and desert habitats
- Includes agave, joshua tree, and yucca
- Geophytes (e.g. plants growing from bulbs, corms, rhizomes, or enlarged taproots) are well adapted to survive fire, our Mediterranean climate’s long, dry summers, and extended droughts
- Above-ground growth dies back after flowering, while underground the plant survives with stored water and nutrients
- All plants in this family contain saponins, with various human uses
- Scientific name from the included genus Agave, from the Greek agauos, “admirable” or “noble,” for the appearance of the century plant (Agave americana)
- Soap plant (Chlorogalum pomeridianum var. pomeridianum) is the only representative of this family in Edgewood
General References
Calflora Database. 2014. Berkeley, California.
Calscape. 2018. California Native Plant Society.
Charters, M.L. 2015. California Plant Names: Latin and Greek Meanings and Derivations.
Charters, M.L. 2017. Southern California Wildflowers: Guide to the Pronunciation of Specific, Generic and Family Names.
Corelli, T. 2004. Flowering Plants of Edgewood Natural Preserve (2nd. ed.). Monocot Press, Half Moon Bay, California.
Elpel, T.J. 2013. Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification. HOPS Press, Pony, Montana.
Flora of North America. efloras.org.
Harris, J.G., and M.W. Harris. 2013. Plant Identification Terminology: An Illustrated Glossary. Spring Lake Publishing, Spring Lake, Utah.
Keator, G. 2009. California Plant Families. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California.
Native American Ethnobotany DB.
Regents of the University of California. Jepson eFlora. Jepson Herbarium. University of California, Berkeley.
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